YMGCR BOWLS CLUB
Midweek pennant had the A1’s travel to Kiewa who were 2nd on the ladder. This is one of the hardest road trips in the O & M zone, and so it was when we lost 0/43 to 14/73. Anne Miles rink started slowly until they picked up a 4 on the 6th end to be down 5/7. The game tightened up when Anne’s rink won 4 ends in a row to take the lead 10/9, but they dropped a 5 on the 15th end and couldn’t catch up and lost 17/23. Laureen Smith’s rink was under the pump from the first end and they lost 13/25. Ray Irvine’s was in the same situation and they went down 13/25. Kiewa now sit on top of the table and we are now 2nd.
In the A2’s, it was a battle of the cellar dwellers with last place YMGCR playing Rutherglen at Rutherglen. Before the game YMGCR had a meeting. Today was the start of the season and finals were still a possibility and that was our aim. Robbie Hummel’s rink won the first 10 ends to lead 15/0. Vicki Withers give the rink a good start (her rolling of the jack improved over the course of the day). Doddy was solid and Danny McNeill and Rob played great bowls all day. They won 32/7. Allan Goudge’s rink got off to a good start and led 6/0 after 5 ends. Norm Windebank was leading beautifully from the start and put the Rutherglen rink under the pump and then “Mr T ” Tony Durkin followed up with good bowls and Bob Evans just did what Bob does, and then skip Goudgie who is having a great year, played the big shots when necessary. They won 34/13. Kerry Kinnane was playing his first game of the season and on the very first end found himself 4 shots down. He drew the shot and we were on the board. The situation didn’t look good when trailing 3/12 after 8 ends. The rink was holding shots but the Rutherglen skip would play a blinder for the shot (at least 4 times this happened). YMGCR kept plugging away but couldn’t bridge the gap and after 17 ends trailed 11/18. Then on the 18th end Kerry played a big bowl and moved the jack back for 3 ……here we come!!!!!! On the 20th end the scores had Rutherglen in front 15/19. We went short and were holding 3 shots when the skips crossed over and then Kerry’s last bowl took the opposition’s closest bowl out and the opposition skip played narrow, and with the thirds on hands and knees counting the shots, the final total was a 5 and YMGCR pulled off the great escape of the season winning 20/19. Our goal for the day was to get off the bottom. Tick, and now we play the undefeated side Corowa RSL at Corowa …..big challenge.
The A3’s played Yackandandah at home and they went down 2/43 to 12/54. Best rink was Ian Morffew who won 15/12. They held sway for most of the day and led 13/8 after 16 ends. Yack then got to within 2 shots but YMGCR steadied and held on for the win. Garry Hart’s rink was always in trouble and after 8 ends they trailed 4/12, but they kept persevering and only lost 15/20. Lilliana Borwick’s rink was in the game and after 14 ends were down 11/12, and with 3 ends to go were only 2 shots down, but they lost the last 3 ends and went down 13/22. We are now 5th on the ladder but only 8 points from the top 4. Next few weeks are critical.
Weekend pennant had the A1’s travel up the road to a dangerous Yarrawonga and they won 16/77 to 2/69. The big winners on the day was the rink of Scott Widdison who won 24/15. They got out to a handy lead 13/6 after 12 ends. Yarra then picked up a 3 to get a bit of a sniff. YMGCR then came back with 8 shots in the next 2 ends to put the game out of Yarra’s reach. Jimmy Lefevre’s got off to a slow start and trailed 1/5 after 4 ends, but they then won 4 of the next 6 ends to lead 8/7 after 10 ends. Yarrawonga bounced back to win the next 4 ends to take a handy lead going down the home stretch but our rink was not finished as they drew level and came rattling home winning 19/15. Troy Williams rink was always there about but went down 12/19. The close game of the day was with Stewie McNeill’s rink with the Yarra rink getting out to a 7/16 lead after 12 ends, but on the 13th and 14th ends YMGCR picked up 7 shots to close the gap and it came down to the last end with Stewie trailing 19/20. After good bowls from the Yarra front half, Stewie found himself 3 shots down in the head and with only one bullet left. After a discussion with his third the shot was decided that it was going to be a drive……. and so it was with the 3 Yarra bowls going out for a fantastic win to YMGCR 22/20.
A2’s played Benalla at home and in a costly loss went down 2/64 to 16/82. This now puts them back in pack. The only positive for the day was Neil Loveridge rink who were in control all day winning 30/15. You know it is your day when the opposition 3rd wanted to declare the head and his skip played his bowl and trailed the jack to give 2 shots away. Goudgie was in the game until the half way point but lost 16/24. Brownie’s rink never fired a shot and lost 13/22. Rob Hummel was well in the game but he lost the last 3 ends to lose 24/14.
The A4’s ventured to Benalla and came up short losing 2/64 to 16/82. Doddy’s rink had a good win 20/13, Jenkins lost 21/25, Danny McNeill lost 15/21 and Bob Evans lost 8/23. This now drops them down to 3rd.
The mighty B2’s (last on the ladder) hosted top of the table Corowa Civic at home and with a new look squad they prevailed 14/69 to 0/49. “Nifty” Neville Coleman’s rink got out to a good start, but the Civic rink came back and the scores were level 8 all after 9 ends. With Frank Liberg playing 3rd for the first time playing well and getting good support from Jill Lamson and Hans Lang, they then went away and won 23/14. The rink of Gavin Borwick, Noel Millar, Chris Horne and John Millar played great bowls from the start and led 20/6 after14 ends. The Civic rink came back but the lead was too great and YMGCR won 23/15. Billy Butterworth ‘s rink was in the tight game of the day and with an even contribution from 3rd “Shagga” Baxter, (Shagga…..contribution means everybody played well) 2nd Carolyn Boston and the ever reliable lead in Dougie McTier, they got over the line winning 23/20. This now takes them of the bottom of the ladder.
“RINK OF THE WEEK” goes to Rob Hummel, Danny McNeill, Doddy and Vicki Withers with a 25 shot victory at Rutherglen.
Wednesday social had 12 players and the winners with 2 games were Ian Febey and Bill Jenkins, runners up were “Cat “and Chris Horne and the lucky number went to the “Cat”.
Heard a funny story about one of our senior players who took his wife down to Melbourne to shop at Costco and saw a TV on special and after a brief discussion with the wife (we just call her Barb) they decided they needed to upsize their old TV and get a bigger one. So, it was purchased and put into their new KIA and arrived at their unit all in one piece. When he got the new TV out and put it next to the old one, surprise, surprise, it was the exact same size. Someone got a very cheap TV !!!!!